Daily Archives: November 3, 2011

I have been following events in Greece the past few months–watching to see what would happen in the land where democracy first was tried.

It is a painful sight. It is a bit like watching two people on the dance floor who don’t know how to dance with each other, and don’t really want to learn, try to make a go of it.

Leaders see the need to fix the economy. Their fixes cause pain for ordinary people. These people rebel. Leaders try to placate them while keeping the fix mostly in place. The dance–if you can call it that–continues, while nobody trusts anybody else. You can’t really dance if you don’t trust your partner.

Now, the prime minister says the people who are don’t trust him and others have the right to vote on the latest dance steps. Other leaders are furious, claiming that this will undo the entire dance.

Does any of this sound familiar? Sort of.

Here at home, we have people occupying town squares (and getting arrested for trespass) ranting against economic forces that the government does not contain, and other people holding meetings at which they rant against government trying to do anything to contain economic forces–and a President and Congress in deadlock.

I certainly don’t have the answer. And yet I know that yelling at each other–pointing fingers at our dance partner who has stepped on our toes one too many times–is not the best answer. Oh, it feels good for awhile, but it doesn’t fix anything.

And meanwhile, the economic forces go right on . . . . making more money. It almost feels as if government is irrelevant–like a side show of watching people dance badly, while behind the potted palm in the corner a couple is making out and having a high old time.

I keep praying we can move the potted palm and begin to fix things, out in the open, but it’s not looking good right now. So I keep praying.